Beyond the Gate
by a unique solution
Summary: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." - T. S. Eliot. Alternate ending to Episode 16; obviously, major spoilers ahead.


A/N: I'm sorry, I just had to write a fix-it. My feelings could not accept the brutality that is _Urobuchi Canon_. Possibly to be continued; we'll have to see what happens next Thursday. I feel pretty good about just leaving it at this, though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Perhaps it was a _little_ reckless of him.

He really should have seen them coming. Tightening his grip around his arm where the bleeding was the worst, Kagari knelt cautiously to pick up the nail gun he had kicked out of his adversary's hands. There were still a few rounds in it. He roughly wiped some of the blood off his hand onto his shirt, trying to ignore the warm rivulets seeping from his shoulder and the cold nausea that was slowly unwinding in his stomach. The pain was bad, but it was bearable; the blood loss, however, was beginning to take its toll, and he leaned against the railing of the walkway for support, feeling light-headed. Suppressing a shiver, he glanced behind him, wary of being jumped again, despite knowing there should only be four targets in the area, and he had already taken down three of them.

Ahead, a brilliant white light spilled out from beyond a doorway. It glowed with a pulsating, hypnotic rhythm, and Kagari shuffled forward anxiously, quelling the dread that threatened to stop him in his steps. This was nothing. He'd survived worse, hadn't he?

"Hah... who am I kidding?" Kagari muttered, grinning in spite of himself. He narrowed his eyes as he approached; the light was much more intense than it had seemed from a distance. Squinting, he could vaguely make out a figure standing in the room, facing away from the entrance. _What a sucker_, Kagari thought. At least he'd be able to finish his job without much hassle- not that that was much consolation.

Raising his arm to aim the gun, a shock of pain flooded through his system, and he hesitated reflexively; wincing, Kagari steadied his arm, but then paused. He had suddenly noticed what the other man was staring at.

"... What the hell is this?" He shouted over the low humming sound that permeated the room.

"This... is the true face of Sybil." The man replied, a triumphant note in his voice. "Nevermind destroying Sybil... if we show this to the public, this whole country is done for!"

Kagari was stunned. This was... Sybil? How could this even be possible? He swallowed thickly, stepping forward to get a closer look, but not relinquishing his hold on the weapon. The man seemed completely uninterested in attacking him, and appeared to be recording the scene with his cellphone's camera. The light seemed unearthly now, ethereal and intangible. _This_ was the menace that had confined him to a life of misery and solitude? The oracle that had deemed him unfit for society, that had cast him out as a pariah without hope of redemption?

He wanted to laugh. This was too surreal.

A noise from behind them shook Kagari from his thoughts. He whirled around, and out from the darkness of the hallway stepped... the chief of the Public Safety Bureau...?

Immediately, the man beside him fired his weapon, as the chief simultaneously fired her own Dominator. A flash of sky-blue energy tore through the air, and a moment later, there was only singed flesh and viscera where the man had just been. Kagari glanced up toward the chief, a sly word of thanks on his tongue, but the sound caught in his throat as he saw the glinting metal beneath the woman's artificial skin. What...? What was going on here?

As his mind raced for an explanation, that familiar, unmistakable glow began to gather around the Dominator in the chief's hand. A few tense seconds expired as the weapon erratically shifted, as if forced, from paralyzer to eliminator mode. Kagari's eyes widened. There would be time to think later.

He dropped to the floor, just barely dodging the lethal roar of light above him. The cyborg seemed unfazed, and merely re-aimed the gun, again overriding its built-in controls. As the Dominator's form shifted, Kagari lifted his own gun; hardly in a position to aim carefully, he pulled on the trigger and simply held it, firing haphazardly in the chief's general direction. A few of the nails grazed by the metallic frame, but one lucky shot- one outright miraculous shot -managed to lodge itself in the muzzle of the Dominator. The fizzle of burnt circuitry followed shortly after the bright panels on the gun's grip turned from hostile blue to harmless red.

Shocked that his attack had actually been effective, Kagari was slow to react, and the cyborg closed the distance within seconds, delivering a swift and powerful kick to his side. The young enforcer choked out a sharp cry of pain, tasting blood as he coughed. Without a moment to recover, he was hoisted into the air, and promptly thrown back out into the hallway. The sheer force of the motion sent him sliding down a small set of stairs, and he slammed against the guard railings hard.

The cyborg, silhouetted by the scintillating light behind her, approached him slowly; Kagari noted with mirthless humour that a truly perfect artificial being would have finished the job without hesitation. There was a certain humanness to its deliberate and predatory saunter- something akin to relaxing one's pace at the final stretch of a race. Then again, it was hard to suppress one's arrogance, when victory was so close at hand.

_Damn... so this is game over, huh?_ Kagari closed his eyes, the light emanating from the faraway room still reaching past his eyelids, denying him the relief of complete darkness. His hands lay at his sides, trembling from blood loss; he wished he could at least hold them still, to die with a little more dignity. As he lifted an arm shakily, his fingers brushed against something hooked onto his belt. His eyes snapped open, and blearily he lifted his gaze to see the monstrosity standing at the top of the steps, only a few feet away.

It was all or nothing- but then again, that seemed to be a recurring theme in his life. With tremendous effort and the tiniest hint of an amused grin, he pulled the device from his belt, pushing down on the red trigger button as he lifted and hurled it as high and far as he could. It landed with a clank on the metal walkway behind the cyborg, who turned instinctively at the noise. A split second later, there was a low, booming sound, like all the air had been sucked out of the room at once. Sparks of electricity danced along the floor, spreading quickly and sending a blinding jolt of pain through Kagari's nerves, which then faded as quickly as it had come. Time seemed to stand still, and the cyborg, with her head eerily twisted towards the location where the EMP grenade had detonated, was frozen in place.

A shrill howl suddenly pierced the air, rising in intensity and pitch, and echoing off the smooth metal-plated walls. All of the lights overhead had gone out within a second of the detonation, and even the brilliant light that 'Sibyl' gave off had vanished. Kagari winced at the strange wailing, which would have sounded human were it not so high-pitched, but it too fell silent after a few moments.

The darkness seemed to ensnare everything in its wake, leaving a trail of superficial tranquility. Not daring to move, Kagari waited in silence for a sign that something had gone terribly wrong. But, nothing stirred, and after a short while, he released a breath he had not realized he had been holding. The next gulp of air that entered his lungs burned with a searing pain, yet felt more pure and refreshing than anything he'd ever experienced in his life. His heart thumped loudly against his chest, and he could feel the last of the adrenaline rush fading away. He felt truly, and impossibly, alive.

In the deepest, blackest pit of the city, Kagari Shuusei wore a self-satisfied smirk as he collapsed upon the cold floor, his mind teetering on the edges of consciousness. He knew he didn't have the strength to climb back up twenty flights of stairs, and that chances were, he'd bleed out before the others arrived. Yet, despite the looming promise of death, he felt a comforting sense of fulfillment about the way things had unfolded, and eventually, as he let his eyes fall shut, his wry smirk was replaced with a smile.


End file.
